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Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

gamespot.com

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Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#51

Post by marshray »

jmsduran wrote: post #42

Damn, I hate hearing about layoffs. I work in a close-knit team of developers and testers, where each of one us is an important contributor to our company's goal, and it impacts our productivity tremendously when someone leaves. Maybe I'm naive, but I would happily give up any yearly bonuses and possibly even a slight pay deduction (as a single guy I don't have many expenses) in order to keep a fellow teammate from b…

There was a time where a company I worked for was having to downsize for a second time. They were planning to keep me on, but cancel the software project I'd been leading.

I talked them into letting me the severance package and I went looking around elsewhere. I relocated for a better salary in a bigger city and the company I left was able to retain a couple of other staff (including a single mom!)

I don't want to make it sound like I was more noble than I really was -- it was the right move for me at the time.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#52

Post by balloot »

cube13 wrote: post #27
justjimmy wrote: post #2

Not really sure what to make of this…been a Blizzard fan since ToD, saw Blizz growing, merging, corporated, massive growth… 3 Major Projects in the Pipeline, 1 Untitled Project, and it lays off 600 people? It's a money printing machine with it's stranglehold on subscription based MMO (as opposed to freemium), I'd hate to think they're laying off people to appease the shareholders and maximize profit.

Technically, it's 2 major projects: Diablo 3 and the new MMO Titan. Starcraft 2 and WoW are in more of a maintenance cycle with the expansions coming out this year. Neither probably need as many developers as the new projects at this point. The layoffs are probably due to WoW losing subscriptions over the last few years, and Diablo 3 nearing completion. The majority of the 540 non-developer positions are probably lev…

The spin in the article was that this was just a routine culling of the employee base.

And to be fair, an ideally managed company would actually have this happen every once in a while. A company like Blizz that has no problems hiring really should drop the bottom 10% of employees periodically and find replacements if needed. I doubt that's the real motivator here, but cutting 10% of employees isn't a bad thing at all as long as the people were picked properly.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#53

Post by danvideo »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #31
justjimmy wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I thought, till I played Hellgate. Man that was a disappointment…

If you haven't already, give Torchlight a try - Mac/PC/XBLA and only $15. http://store.steampowered.com/app/41500/

Looks interesting. On first glance it does appear similar to Trine though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trine_(video_game) Which I wasn't a big fan of... anyone know if that's the case?

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#54

Post by jpadkins »

Remember, John Staats (designer for WoW, lead designer for their next gen MMO code named titan) was let go in November.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/11/07/rumor-senior-titan-d...

There was rumor that it was more than just 1 lead designer was being cut, but nothing substantial.

I don't think those 60 developer staff were just "QA people" etc.. I bet they killed or scoped down the whole project.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#55

Post by jamesaguilar »

JS_startup wrote: post #43
jamesaguilar wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really very surprising. You probably wouldn't have played D2 for very long if it was only normal difficulty, and only the section before Blood Raven. Personally I quite enjoyed the beta, a lot more than I enjoyed the same period of the D2 game. I'm anticipate spending many, many hours enjoying D3.

It's not even the length or difficulty, I just didn't feel motivated to get through it. Maybe the rest of the game will be better but I felt the beta had really terrible pacing, claustrophobic corridor-style level design and an odd Tim Burton-Warcraft universe fusion art style.

In a game that is so progression based, knowing that all the power you accumulate will go to no useful end can be a real motivation killer. The point of Diablo games has always been to get nice stuff so you can murder progressively more difficult enemies. When there isn't going to be a progressively more difficult enemy, why get nice stuff?

I didn't have any problem with the pacing, somewhat agree on the problem of corridor level design, and again I had no problem with the art style. But some of that is a taste issue where our priorities just don't align.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#56

Post by NickPollard »

cube13 wrote: post #37
NickPollard wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SC2 and WoW expansions are still major, MAJOR projects, believe me. Calling it just maintenance really does a disservice to the amount of work that goes into these things. For Blizzard, this applies doubly so. I expect that Heart of the Swarm is a bigger project that most studios can dream of, in all manners - technology, art and design, production, distribution, marketing, and all the other attendant features that g…

I'm not arguing that the WoW and SC2 expansions not major projects. I'm saying that compared to the new projects(D3 and Titan), the overall personnel allocation is smaller for Heart of the Swarm and Mists of Pandaria. The development effort on those isn't on a new codebase(unlike D3 or Titan). They're adding new features and reworking game systems in the expansions(especially with the WoW expansion, where they're com…

Oh sure, the new MMO will definitely be their biggest current project, and D3 is a little bigger than HotS, but probably not by as much as you think.

In fact, when you've got a game as big as WoW, making sure that everything you add plays well with all the existing pieces is a mammoth undertaking - it would probably be easier if it was a new game! As you pointed out, these aren't simple 'Here's 4 new areas with some new enemy models expansions, these are major reworkings of large game features.

Although I've never worked on an expansion, from all the games I have worked on those kinds of things are definitely not simple.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#57

Post by StavrosK »

danvideo wrote: post #53
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't already, give Torchlight a try - Mac/PC/XBLA and only $15. http://store.steampowered.com/app/41500/

Looks interesting. On first glance it does appear similar to Trine though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trine_(video_game) Which I wasn't a big fan of... anyone know if that's the case?

They are nothing alike. I've only played Diablo slightly, but Torchlight is much closer to Diablo (hell, Trine is a platformer).

I enjoyed both games, but if you like Diablo, you'll love Torchlight. Torchlight 2 is coming soon too, I believe.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#58

Post by betterth »

danvideo wrote: post #53
michaelbuckbee wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you haven't already, give Torchlight a try - Mac/PC/XBLA and only $15. http://store.steampowered.com/app/41500/

Looks interesting. On first glance it does appear similar to Trine though: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trine_(video_game) Which I wasn't a big fan of... anyone know if that's the case?

Trine was a fun little fantasy arcade scroller. Side to side action. A platformer.

Torchlight is a dungeon crawler in the vein of diablo. Lots of equipment dropping, items to get, etc, as opposed to the more platformer-style of Trine.

Very, very different games that happen to be set in the same fantasy genre.

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#59

Post by ak217 »

JS_startup wrote: post #43
jamesaguilar wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not really very surprising. You probably wouldn't have played D2 for very long if it was only normal difficulty, and only the section before Blood Raven. Personally I quite enjoyed the beta, a lot more than I enjoyed the same period of the D2 game. I'm anticipate spending many, many hours enjoying D3.

It's not even the length or difficulty, I just didn't feel motivated to get through it. Maybe the rest of the game will be better but I felt the beta had really terrible pacing, claustrophobic corridor-style level design and an odd Tim Burton-Warcraft universe fusion art style.

Maybe the rest of the game will be better but I felt the beta had really terrible pacing, claustrophobic corridor-style level design and an odd Tim Burton-Warcraft universe fusion art style.

Sounds like Diablo 2. (I loved that game, btw.)

Re: Blizzard Lays Off 600, Including About 60 Developers

#60

Post by afterburner »

kirinan wrote: post #26

This is interesting, I knew one of their main sources of revenue (World of Warcraft) wasn't doing as hot, but still had over 10million people, which at 15$ a month subscription, is nothing to scoff at. The 60 developers is the most interesting, they have a lot of in the queue for them (D3, Starcraft 2: expansion, and Titan (their next MMO), Im guessing they either weren't pulling their weight or this has something to…

I believe less than half the 10 million pay the $15 a month typically charged in North America. Many accounts in China are linked to internet cafes, which charge peanuts by the hour to their customers.

Still, the 4 million or so North American and European monthly accounts still makes it huge.

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